Bahrain charges opposition chief with 'regime overthrow' bid

Prosecutors on Monday charged Bahrain's Shiite opposition chief with attempting to overthrow the regime and sent him to trial despite international calls for his release.

Sheikh Ali Salman will stand trial from January 28 on charges of "promoting the overthrow and change of the political regime by force," prosecutor Nayef Mahmud said in a statement.

Salman, head of the influential Al-Wefaq bloc, has been in custody since December 28 and his detention has sparked near-daily protests in Shiite villages across the Shiite-majority but Sunni-ruled kingdom.